Promoting Writing & Creativity as Integrative Tools

Tag: Before Words

This blog and the two following indirectly touch on the subject of VULNERABILITY. For when you share your work–painting, poetry, prose, thoughts, woodwork, sculpture, write a blog, etc., you are being vulnerable.

****

It was deep winter in the mountains. An elder friend was in hospice care, settled in a home further north of where I live. The roads were impassable.

While I longed to visit her, I didn’t want to put myself in jeopardy. Instead, I painted, not knowing where I would go or what needed expression. Before long, I found myself painting with my fingers…and, of all things, a pink cow! To this day, I don’t know why I was compelled to paint a pink cow using my fingers. The tactile experience of painting with my fingers seemed essential. This creative process helped me to transform the feeling of helplessness in regards to being unable to visit my friend.

Why did this help? I don’t have an answer. Some things really do dwell in the mystery or the deep unconscious and cannot be fathomed. Perhaps they are before words.

****

Poetry has also provided this sort of harmonizing effect for me. When my father-in-law was dying, I turned to poetry. Trying to understand my relationship with my parents or to make some sense of a long-term marriage that was ending, I turned to poetry. Journal writing has been invaluable to me when facing life’s incongruities. However, like painting, poetry has a way of containing wayward emotions while transforming them.

WRITING PROMPT:
For your journal: Has art and/or writing and poetry helped you to express, uplift or in some way transform your difficult feelings? Can you tolerate looking foolish in order to express and then share something that is deeply felt?